ATLANTIS DISCOVERED ON THE ABYSSAL PLAIN
TITLE:
ATLANTIS DISCOVERED ON THE ABYSSAL PLAIN
DATE:
Friday, March 5th, 2010
TIME:
3:30 PM
LOCATION:
GMCS 214
SPEAKER:
David T. Sandwell,
Scripps Institute of Oceanography
ABSTRACT:
Bathymetry is foundational data, providing basic infrastructure for scientific, economic, educational, managerial, and political work. While nearly all areas of ocean science require bathymetric information, there are three applications where improved bathymetry would provide the greatest benefit:
• resolving the fine-scale tectonic structure of the deep ocean floor (e.g., abyssal hills, microplates, propagating rifts, seamounts, meteorite impacts, lost cities, . . .);
• measuring the roughness spectra of the seafloor on a global basis to better constrain models of tidal dissipation, vertical mixing, and mesoscale circulation of the oceans;
• and resolving the fine-scale gravity field of the continental margins for basic research and petroleum exploration.
This seminar will focus on the development the global bathymetry model used in Google Earth which lead to the to the discovery of Atlantis. The second part of the talk will discuss the use of ship sounding profiles to estimate seafloor slope at scales relevant to the deep ocean mixing problem.
HOST:
Rob Mellors
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